Many of these branches disappeared in
the 20th century and of course, all have now gone in the 21st century.

A look back to the first
badges used on ratings uniforms dating from the mid 19th century

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We start our story off with 'badges', and
just to confuse you, although the Royal Navy has lockers full of them with many
different shapes, sizes, names and colours, we only refer to one of them as a
BADGE. To further complicate things, in reality it is a 'stripe' but we don't
call it such: we leave that for our buddies in the marines, the army and the air
force to use that expression. Whilst not part of my story on this page, in the
navy, a 'stripe' is worn by an officer to denote his rank, for example, a
lieutenant has two stripes and a captain, four stripes.

We assessed men in the navy in two ways, and
from those assessment an immediate picture came to mind about the overall
quality of the man. The first assessment was the CHARACTER of the man
which was a measure of his morals, his self discipline and thus his CONDUCT
in the Service. The assessments were Very Good [VG]; Good, Fair, Indifferent and
Bad. The vast majority of sailors [in excess of 95%] were assessed as VG.
Thus being assessed as only Good meant that one was not up to the norm which was
adjudged to be Very Good, and being less than Good usually meant that one was
well below par and your future was bleak. As a reward, a man with a continuous
VG Conduct record measured over a specific period was given a 'badge' which
rather strangely was called a Good Conduct Badge, a GCB. In reality it should
have been called a VGCB because been assessed as only Good continuously over the
same specific period would have denied a man getting this 'badge'.
With the 'badge' came a small money allowance* and badgemen had certain
privileges denied to non-badgemen. In order to encourage the man to
maintain his VG status, there was always the threat of it been taken off him for
any wrong doing, and a mandatory wait period before he got it back given that he
mended his ways.

*Badge
pay stopped on the 1st April 1970.

Before continuing with GCB's, let me tidy
away the other assessment mentioned above. The second assessment was EFFICIENCY
at his job at his rate. These were Inferior; Moderate; Satisfactory;
Superior and Exceptional and to be marked as Satisfactory [SAT] was good enough.
To be 'VG SAT' meant that you were a trusted a well rounded sailor, quite
adequate and most suitable for promotion when it came your way. At a guess, I
would reckon that at least 65% of the navy were assessed as SAT with only a few
percentage-wise below SAT, the other 33% or so in the higher assessment groups.

Back to the GCB story.

GCB's were first introduced in 1849, just 44
years after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. They were of gold lace and chevron in
design and were worn on the left arm. Below the rank of chief petty officer, the
left and right arms show two types of badges, on the left arm SUBSTANTIVE badges
and on the right arm NON-SUBSTANTIVE badges. Substantive badges show naval
rank {petty officer; leading hand; instructor boy; petty officer boy and leading
boy} and the GCB's, whilst unlike the marines, army and air force have
absolutely nothing to do with rank, are to do with good conduct, reliability,
experience and if necessary, responsibility. Non-substantive badges
reflect the branch you are in and the level of expertise you have reached in
professional examinations.

The first GCB was awarded after five years
service, the second after ten years service and the third after fifteen years
service, all times dating from the sailors eighteenth birthday or later if he
joined after the age of eighteen. Time served before eighteen did not
count. Before 1860, a Royal Navy sailor could claim time spent in the Merchant
Navy towards his qualifying time. In 1860, after a major rethink on 'Conditions
of Service' in the light of the Crimean War, the time periods for GCB's
were altered to three years for the first, the second after eight years and the
third after thirteen years. It remained that way for 90 long years until 1950,
when common sense prevailed and the awards were made every four years after
four, eight and twelve years service respectively. The reason for three only
badges was that a man's fourth 'badge' would have been {prior to 1860] due after
twenty years service and that was the time he would have left the navy in those
days. After 1860, he had the opportunity of going for a pension to serve twenty
two years, and after his third GCB {after thirteen years service when aged
thirty two} his next "reward" was a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal and a
small cash gratuity negating the need for a fourth 'badge'. And so it has
always been a maximum of three GCB's. For the second half of the twentieth
century sailors joining on or before their eighteenth birthday wore three GCB's
on their left arm from the age of thirty. CPO's wore GCB's when they were
introduced at a time when they wore square rig, but ceased doing so when in fore
and aft rig. Today, a sailor serving a pensionable career, has, after his third
GCB, the award of a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal [LSGC] plus a cash
gratuity after fifteen years service, followed by a pension when aged forty
after twenty two years service. It is possible to serve to a much greater
age than forty, and that could bring a clasp award for his LSGC. This clasp was
introduced on the 24th January 1945.

From the first introduction of GCB's, while
the gold lace badges were sold as such for wear on blue cloth jackets and blue
serge frocks, badges of blue serge had to be made up by the tailors to go on
white duck frocks. In 1860, red badges were instituted for blue
serge frocks, gold being worn on jackets only, and thereafter gold, red and blue
GCB's could be purchased made up in ones, twos, or threes with the badge of a
petty officer or leading seaman attached to them. After the blue jacket
was abolished in 1891, gold badges were worn on the number one frock which had
replaced it as best, and when that also went out in 1906, on the number 1
jumper. It may be convenient to explain here that the frock was a rather
loose garment which was tucked into the top of the trousers while the jumper was
slimmer fitting and was worn outside them.

Thinking on that left arm business mentioned
above {the substantive side} 1958 heralded in a most unfortunate and grossly
unpopular badge which was to be worn on the jumper/jacket left arm cuff by all
ratings serving in submarines. The badge could hardly be considered to be
SUBSTANTIVE {certainly less so than GCB's] and was called the 'pregnant sausage'
or other less attractive names by all submariners including me, and although it
was a SLOPS item until 1964, it was rarely seen on a uniform it being considered
ridiculous. In my picture below I have shown it in line drawing, but it did come
in all the normal colours namely red, white and gold, being a sewn image on
normal badge-cloth.

Now for Non-Substantive badges which follow
below. But first a bit of history about them to help you understand more
fully. Please do not rush ahead to the badges
themselves for the history of them is as important and the badges themselves.

From the earliest of times the various
duties that have to be performed in a ship of war have required the allocation
of a number of separate men for their performance, so that everyone knew what
his particular job would be and what jobs would be done by other men.
According to the importance of his duties so a man was graded and paid.
Some jobs might carry a petty officer's rate, some would not.

In the year after the Battle of Trafalgar
there were as many as forty eight different ratings to be found in a ship of the
line. By 1st April 1853, when the rating of chief
petty officer was first introduced, this number had swollen to
seventy nine. Thirteen of this total had been added in 1847 when
eleven other ratings which had become obsolete were abolished.

There was no special arrangements for the
training of men in special duties, and ratings were given or taken away at the
discretion of the captain. In 1830 there was a new department. A
Gunnery School was set up at Portsmouth in HMS Excellent and was later moved
ashore. The products of this school were rated as seamen gunners. In
1860 gunnery instructors were also introduced and in this year the gunnery
ratings were given embroidered badges to wear on their sleeve. These
consisted of a gun superimposed on a crossed rifle and cutlass with a crown
above for gunnery instructors and a single gun with or without crown above it,
for seamen gunners of the first or second class respectively.

By 1885, the invention of the torpedo had
led to the introduction of a new family of ratings. Men were trained in both
weapons, and this led to both guns and torpedoes appearing on their badges, the
arm for which they were principally trained being placed in front of the other
on the badge. In the new set of badges, four had the gun in front of the
torpedo, two the torpedo in front of the gun. In the same year sick berth
ratings shipped the Red Cross as their badge.

These [the gunnery] badges lasted only five
years and they were modified in 1890 when some badges with a single gun also
appeared. At the same time badges were introduced for stokers, signalmen,
artisans, gymnastic instructors and naval police.

In 1903, the gunnery and torpedo badges were
all reorganised, each branch becoming completely independent of the other and
wearing devices showing the one weapon only. New badges for other branches
followed, for wireless telegraphy ratings in 1909, for officer's stewards and
cooks in 1916, for range-takers in 1918, for divers in 1919, for surveying
recorders in 1921, for photographers, telegraphist air gunners and the new anti
submarine branch in 1930.

1932 saw sail-makers having their turn and
the various ratings that came under the jurisdiction of the accountant branch
had some variety introduced into their badges.

In 1933, the signal and wireless telegraphy
branches were reorganised with changed titles, and this led to changes in their
badges in the following year.

One year before WW2 started [1938] the
gunnery branch followed and also reorganised. It had been found that with the
complexity of weapons it was no longer possible to give every man such a wide
training as had hitherto been attempted, and in consequence men were now to
specialise in one of four branches - gun-laying, quarters, control or
anti-aircraft. Many of the older gunnery and range-taker ratings were
replaced and in 1939 came a new series of badges in which a man's particular
sub-specialisation was indicated by distinguishing letters below the badge.

This same opening of war year saw the
introduction of air mechanics, organised into three sections - airframes,
electrical and engines.

WW2 gave rise to some additional badges,
such as those for boom defence in 1941 and for combined operations in 1942. In
1944 responsibility for electrical matters was taken away from the torpedo
branch who had held it since its introduction into the Navy in the last century,
and was given to a new independent department. Two new branches thus
emerged from the old, each with its own basic badge. These were the
electrical badge, and the torpedo-anti-submarine branch which was formed by the
amalgamation of these two disciplines. The new badges did not appear until 1947.

Up to this time, each branch had developed
its own badges in its own fashion and the crowns and stars of one had not
necessarily the same meaning as they had for another. There were branches
in which the same basic badge was worn without addition by all members of the
branch. In 1948, an attempt was made to rationalise the meaning of these
additional crowns and stars throughout the Navy. The original scheme
had to be modified in 1951 when a new pay structure caused the chief petty
officer of most branches to adopt two grades of badges according to their two
grades of pay. To the onlooker it seems strange that at a period when
differences between officers' dress for the various branches were being
obliterated so many additional badges should be introduced to show minor changes
between the same status of ratings. Nevertheless frequent changes in
non-substantive badges continued.

In 1956. it was decided that the title 'boy'
was no longer appropriate and these were re-designated to be 'juniors'. At
the same time it was decided that it was no longer desirable that a new entrant
should delay specialisation until he had been some time at sea and this lead to
some reorganisation of the meaning of badges in the lower categories.
Before 1956, boy's had communication branch badges but those training for the
seaman branch had none.

Badges are made in red for wear on blue
uniforms and in blue for wear on white uniforms. On No1 uniforms the
badges are of gold.

So, what follows are the badges of the Royal
Navy from the 19th century until the mid to late 20th century, sixty six basic
badges in all with variants not shown. The badges are arranged in the
chronological order of the first introduction of each basic design.
THEY ARE TAKEN FROM OFFICIAL ADMIRALTY FILES. Some
of them appear alien to our more recent understanding of badges and at first
glance you might question a badge for a rate. Some of them tell of great
and profound changes none more so than this badge on the left below, which

See this picture of ratings training to be pilots during WW2

See entries 84 and 85 alongside this branch badge

in the period 1945-1948 was the badge of a
Rating Pilot [Completed Flying Training] and in the period 1948-1961, the
badge of a 3rd class Photographer.

However, bear in mind the
third paragraph above which begins with "Up to this time".
Where a date is shown with a hyphen only and no subsequent date, this means
that the badge was still extant after the date shown. Enjoy.

1. CPO not in possession of any
gunnery or torpedo training: worn on lapels.

-

1890-1908

Example Badge - Crown above Red Cross
with star and 'H' below

Covers all ratings in the
Medical Branch from 1911 to post 1965 whether Sick Berth Attendants [SBA's]
or Medical Technicians.

All of the following types of badges have the RED CROSS as the centre piece.
The periods in which badges were extant [thus changes occurred] within the overall period
1911-post 1965 {as shown in column 3} were:-
1911-1933; 1933-1939; 1933-1949; 1949-1951; 1951-1965; 1949-1965;
1949-1958; and post 1965.

Each has variants which are the addition of Crowns, Stars and Letter[s]
{worn above and below badges} signifying a specific specialisation as follows:-

This badge was authorised by
AFO 708 of March 1959 for Communication Branch ratings who
satisfactorily completed the parachute training course at the RAF
Parachute Training School and were attached to the Independent
Amphibious Observation Unit, Royal Artillery. The badge, which depicts a
parachute with wings may still be worn after the ratings cease duty with
the Regiment unless withdrawn for refusing to jump or being absent
without good cause from a parade specially ordered for parachute
jumping. The following badge was worn with the associated uniforms:-
a. Gold on blue, silver parachute - No1's
b. Red on blue - Blue naval uniform other than No1's
c. Blue on white - Naval tropical white uniform
d. White on khaki serge - Khaki serge uniforms
e. White on K/D - K/D uniforms.

Parachute badges may also be
worn by ratings who have qualified in other Services provided that:-
a. they have completed a basic parachute course at a recognised
RAF Parachute Training School and been subsequently on
the
strength of an airborne unit which required them to
drop by
parachute, or
b. they have made the parachute jump in operations against the
enemy, or
c. they have not had the privilege of wearing the badge withdrawn
for refusing to jump or being absent from a parade
specifically
ordered for jumping.
The badges are worn in the same positions as flying badges.

1959-

Trunnion bearing containing
letters 'WM' and crossed by gun and torpedo with stars above and below

Pilots badge, with silver
anchor and cable of silver embroidery surrounded by a laurel wreath of
silver embroidery superimposed on the wings of an albatross.

Worn as
follows:-

Blue uniforms
1. CPO on cuff of left
sleeve above
centre button
2. Other ratings 1½"
from end of left
sleeve, or, 1½"
above the point of
the left cuff of
jumpers with cuffs.Working Dress
1. Above the left
breast shirt pocketTROPICAL
1. 1½" above left
breast pocket of
tunic
2. Or immediately
above medals/
medal ribbons.
3. On junior rate
jumpers, same as
for Blue Uniforms
'2' above.
4. Not worn on
tropical shirts or
white fronts.

Rating pilots

This was worn by lower deck
pilots and but for a few minor [trivial] differences, was the same as
that worn by a commissioned pilot. NOTE. The Royal Flying
Corps [RFC] and the Royal Naval Air Service [RNAS] merged on the 1st
April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force [RAF]. From that date to 1922 the
RAF provided the aircrews along with the ground maintenance personnel
for the navy's aircraft carriers. In 1924, the "Fleet Air Arm of the
Royal Air Force" was formed. In early 1925 naval officers wishing to fly
with the FAA of the RAF were trained at RAF flying schools. In that
year, in October, AFO 2793 issued details of the first naval pilots
badge. All ship borne aircraft and personnel were transferred to
Admiralty control in 1937 when the "FAA of the RN" was officially
formed, this after many battles between admirals and air marshals, when
at one time, the RAF objected to allowing the navy to have CPO pilots
stating that they were technically inferior to RAF sergeant pilots.
Early in 1938, direct recruiting to the FAA brought in many officers who
had learned to fly when short service officers in the RAF or who had
qualified at private flying schools. On the 24th May 1939 when nearly
two years old, the FAA became fully independent of the RAF. At the start
of WW2 the navy were desperately short of aircrew [pilots, observers,
telegraphist air gunners] and many ratings were chosen for pilot
training and other aircrew tasks. Some remained ratings on qualifying
whilst others [and many after two months basic training in HMS St
Vincent as naval airmen 2nd class] qualified and became Air Branch
officers wearing the letter 'A' in the loop/curl of their top stripe on
both sleeves. The navy's aircrews were made up of midshipmen, RN, RNR
and RNVR officers; Royal Marine officers; RN warrant officers and rating
pilots, the latter taken from the seaman and communication branches.

1937-1955 when the ratings
pilot scheme was put in abeyance. In 1961, four significant things
happened. 1. The last national serviceman left the RN. 2. The Nore
Command closed. 3. SL Officers were recruited with a minimum of 4 GCE
'O' levels and some became pilots, both rotary and fixed wing. 4. The
ratings pilot scheme was finally closed.

Aircrewman. A badge very
similar to that worn by a commissioned officer or warrant officer [pre
1949] observer.
Wings with anchor in centre surrounded by a narrow oval of rope with
crown above.

1. Telegraphist
air gunner 2nd class.

CPO wear badge on both collars in red but single badge
for right cuff in blue.Others wear single badge on right cuff in red and blue.

In 1944, AFO 4024 brought
issues of new badges to ratings in the FAA [other than pilots].

3. Telegraphist Air Gunner 3rd class - Wings with anchor in centre
surrounded by a narrow oval of rope with star above

4. Naval Airman [General Duties] - Wings with anchor in centre
surrounded by a narrow oval of rope. Also worn by ratings under training
as pilots, during preliminary and Part 1 observer training, and during
Parts 1 and 2 TAG training. These were called Aircrewmen [U].

1944-

The original badge of the Royal Flying Corps had wings of a SWIFT; that
of the Royal Naval Air Service of an EAGLE, and that of the Fleet Air
Arm of the Royal Navy, an ALBATROSS. On formation, the Royal Air Force
took the wings of an EAGLE as their badge and that remains their badge
to this very day.

Before Britain
had an air force {of any kind}, she had a Balloon Battalion and for
ex-Ganges boys, the Annexe at Shotley used to be a Balloon Station. Once
the Battalion had been disbanded {for naval use - the army kept it and
used it on the battlefields of WW1}, a Central Flying School was opened
at Netheravon on Salisbury Plain and the Royal Flying Corps was formed:
that was in April 1912.

Ratings have been pilots in the navy from the
earliest of times and well before WW1 started. In the early days they
served in the RNAS. Ratings who had become trained pilots carried on
wearing the uniform appropriate to their branch and rating - usually
Class II square rig, but those who joined as ratings for flying training
wore Class III fore and aft rig the same as the S&S branch, SBA's
and Coder junior rates. Although these badges have been long gone, here is just a
small trip down memory lane to show you a few of them.

On the 14th February 2003
died Lt Cdr Frederick 'Ben' Rice DSM. He was the first rating-pilot to
land on an aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous in February 1939.

1912-

Finally a note on the naval STAR of which there are
forty listed in the pictures above and of course many more in Column
Four.

Badges were worn on uniforms and much
was made about the naval uniform to a new recruit. For example the
lines on a collar, why a lanyard and why a silk and tapes ? Bell bottom
trousers and their unique waist fastening involving a fabric cross-over,
integral to the trousers, around the waist fastened by a row of three
vertical buttons, over which a front flap of material about six inches
deep was pulled up over this cross-over and buttoned by a row of four
horizontal buttons which was used as a fly and hid the vertical buttons
on the cross-over ; no zips in those days ! Kit had to be stowed
in a limited space onboard a ship and items of kit had to be folded in a
certain way to maximise the use of the space available without damaging
the article of kit. Bell bottom trousers were folded concertina-wise
with two gauges available. The first was seven creases ironed-in {or
steamed-in} at regular and uniform distances from the bottom of the leg
to the upper thigh, across the leg {thwartships}, and the other option
was five creases. Clearly, the 'seven' option resulted in a
tighter fold and this was used in HMS Ganges at all times. The
'five' option was often preferred by sailors in the fleet once out of
basic training, but for ceremonial occasions [as opposed to liberty]
this was dictated by the commander/first lieutenant of the ship or shore
establishment. The seven and five options came from nautical
antiquity at a time when there were FIVE recognised OCEANS [Pacific
60,060,868 square miles and the deepest/
Atlantic 29,637,961 square miles and the second deepest/
Indian 26,469,608 square
miles and third deepest/ Southern
7,848,295 square miles depth still being argued about/
Arctic 5,427,049 square miles
and the fourth deepest - today we only recognise four namely Pacific,
Atlantic, Indian and Arctic. The word 'seven' in antiquity meant
'several' and the "Seven Seas of antiquity" were known as the
Red, Mediterranean, Persian
Gulf, Black,
Adriatic,
Caspian and
Indian Sea. Today, we
know of many more and the North Sea, for many years called the German
Sea, is considered to be our very own. The number of seas is so
great now that as a reminder only, if we were to enter the Mediterranean
through the Straits of Gibraltar, we would be given access to no fewer
than five seas without exiting the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal to
enter the Red Sea. These are the Aegean,
Adriatic,
Black, Marmara, Tyrrherian
and the Ionian. Sailors
who wore bell bottoms could tell you why they had creases in their
trousers but many could not name the oceans/seas involved in the
custom/tradition !

Apart from bell bottoms which were stretched to make
them larger [when wet, pulled hard down on an up-turned dhoby bucket and
allowed to dry]; the heavily bent Blancoed white cap with its
tiddly bow slewed as near as possible to be positioned over the left eye
{as opposed to the side of the head/cap where it should have been}
putting the name of the ship further back towards the rear of the cap
{e.g., H.M.S. Knaresborough Castle}; the "can't do without bottle of
bleach" for the white front and the blue jean collar; the jumper, so
tight that one was knackered when struggling to get into it and which
took your oppo to pull the darn thing off when returning from a run
ashore, and that much cherished addition of a white silk scarf, centre
stage in literally thousands of wedding photographs of "jolly jack". In
actual fact, white scarf's were worn by senior rates only whether
onboard with night clothing or anytime when ashore with or without
Burberry's or great coats, but junior rates were only allowed to wear
them when on LONG LEAVE only, never on night or week end
leave. Thus, by implication, they were never seen on the person of a
junior rate when in a naval port or town. When worn by junior
rates, they were invariably tucked down behind the black silk. All these
uniform points were well understood by royal sailors and moreover,
regularly abused, sometimes to the point where adding a badge to which
they were not entitled or qualified to wear, elevated them [at least in
their eyes] towards the status of "sea dad's" !

However, and countless thousands will have been worn on
naval uniforms, there will be very few indeed who will know of the
ubiquitous naval ratings STAR - NOTE, senior naval
officers wear stars on their shoulder straps which are eight-pointed
stars. The army wear variants of five-points, seven-points and
eight-points whilst the RAF seem not to bother with stars at all !

The naval ratings star has six-points and as we have
seen from the table above, it can signify many things. Above all else,
in varying degree, it is about competency or seniority, and a senior
rate with two stars below his badge [RCI for example - see Telegraphist
badge above, column four, No 3 entry] depicts his high achievement
within his branch - a proper Sparker as it were.

Stars on naval uniforms are relatively new dating from
the late 19th century. At that time it was decided to use a symbol
with a nautical connotation, and the one chosen was the original nautical compass
rose used by the Romans. They used 12-points to 'box their
compass' as we today 'box the compass' using 32-points or higher depending upon the degree of
accuracy required. If you study a naval ratings star more carefully,

you will note that from the centre point, the inner
circle, there are twelve lines drawn out to fixed points on the outside
of the star. The vertical lines point to NORTH and SOUTH respectively while the
horizontal lines point to EAST and WEST respectively. The other lines, moving from
NORTH clockwise, are each at 30º distance
from the preceding point and thus overall, the rose covers 000º, 030º,
060º, 090º, 120º, 150º, 180º, 210º, 240º, 270º, 300º, 330º.

For some inexplicable
reason, the vast majority of naval ratings were never taught this and
yet it is clearly documented in naval archives. Now you know !